[ 60 Seconds ] with David Marcus, Senior Vice President of Partnerships with ScoreBig

Based in Los Angeles, ScoreBig offers customers up to 60 percent savings on sports, concert and theater tickets. ScoreBig.com allows customers to name a ticket price for an event they are interested in and ScoreBig immediately searches for a ticket that matches the offer. If a matching ticket can’t be found, ScoreBig might make a counter offer or the customer can make an offer for a different seat location or alternate date. We recently spoke with David Marcus, Senior Vice President of Partnerships for ScoreBig.

InsideFlyer
Can you tell us about your partnership with United MileagePlus?David Marcus
The United MileagePlus partnership is really exciting for us because for the first time, frequent flyers can both earn and redeem miles for millions of tickets – from the floor to the rafters – for thousands of live events. We have a complete selection of NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, MLS and NCAA games, as well as popular family, music and theater performances – all at substantial savings. This means, for example, that a MileagePlus member can go to almost any major league baseball game in the U.S. for just a few thousand miles or can buy the same ticket at a discount and earn miles with their purchase. We think the value exchange is unbeatable in live event ticketing and travel. For us it’s an incredible validation of our offering to have a program like United MileagePlus select us as their live event marketing partner.

IF
How have MileagePlus members responded to the offer?Marcus
MileagePlus members have responded well on both the accrual and redemption sides of the program. When the program launched last Spring, members could earn five miles per $1 spent on ScoreBig while still receiving discounts up to 60 percent on every ticket purchased. However, in an effort to create even more value for the program, we recently introduced a new product that appeals to members who love to build their mileage balances. With this new MileagePlus product, members can now choose whether they want to save money and earn five miles per dollar, or whether they want to pay face value for the same ticket and earn up to 35 miles per dollar. With this product, MileagePlus members can regularly earn 10,000 miles on a pair of tickets on ScoreBig. It’s been a big hit and while we can’t share any specifics, the feedback we hear from United is that member response is much higher than average. We’re really excited to watch how members continue to use it.

IF
What’s the most amount of miles anyone has earned with one ScoreBig purchase?Marcus
Yes, since the launch of our new mileage accelerator a few weeks ago, the most miles earned by a MileagePlus member so far is 10,600 miles on a single ScoreBig purchase. But there are cases where members can earn over 100,000 miles on a pair of tickets. For example, only a few weeks ago, there were a pair of courtside seats to a Lakers home game that would have earned a MileagePlus member 168,000 miles on a pair. So, we think the opportunity for earning miles on live event tickets is unmatched by any other ticketing product in the market.

IF
How has ScoreBig changed since it launched in 2010?Marcus
When we started, we were five guys in a dingy live-work space, with a vision that we could make fun more affordable for the average consumer and at the same time solve a big problem in the live-event industry, where 40 percent of tickets go unsold every year. We started by relentlessly focusing on building a solution that met the industry’s needs. We’ve largely accomplished that and now are focused on creating a great consumer experience in a market segment (ticketing) that isn’t widely regarded as being consumer friendly. On the consumer side, that has meant making sure that we have the widest selection of high quality, low-cost tickets (we have more than a million tickets for sale at any given time); making it easy for consumers to purchase tickets by naming a ticket price; building a dedicated customer service team to make sure consumers always feel taken care of and signing up great partners like United MileagePlus to add value to the ticket buying experience.

IF
Is there anything else you like our readers to know?Marcus
We just launched our Broadway category, which we think is going to be really successful for our travel partners. Broadway is one of the great destination entertainment locations. In 2013, 66 percent of Broadway’s roughly 11 million tickets were purchased by tourists. Think about the opportunities for travel partners to market discounted Phantom of the Opera or Wicked tickets to a traveler who just purchased airline tickets to New York or who booked a hotel room in Times Square. It’s an ideal opportunity to complete the travel experience and make fun more affordable for the traveler.

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